Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Really,
Regina? THAT’S why you had it out for
Snow White this whole time? Okay sure,
it was pretty boneheaded of her to go blabbing about you and Daniel to Cora, particularly
after you warned her about your psychotic mother. I won’t deny that. But… shouldn’t you, I don’t know, be angrier
at the woman who manipulated a ten-year-old girl’s feelings about losing a
mother? You know, the woman who actually
killed the guy you loved? You knew
perfectly well how your mother was coco for cocoa puffs. You’ve known that for what must have been
your whole life. (Seriously, this woman
makes the stereotypical overcritical soccer mom look good.) But Snow didn’t know what Cora really
was. How could she? I mean, the cumulative amount of time they’d
spent together at this point was, what, five minutes? Put credit where credit is due, lady! Yes, I understand you’re upset and
heartbroken about losing Daniel, and you have every right to be. But this happened when Snow was 10. Seeing as she’s now an adult, sometime has
passed. Add the 28 years the curse has
been in effect to that, and you get, what, 48 years, give or take? You’d think that at some point during that
time, your anger would have lessened just slightly enough for you to get some
perspective. But then again, what do I
know? Anyway, it was beautifully tragic to see Regina’s interactions with the young
Snow White, and how they clearly could have been friends if circumstances
hadn’t gotten in the way and messed it all up.
(How ironic was it that it was Regina of all people who first educated
Snow about true love?)

Meanwhile,
in Storybrooke, August steps forward to help Emma locate evidence that proves
Mary Margret’s innocence. (Here, we also
get our first clue that something is wrong with August when his leg starts to
bother him.) With Henry acting as a
lookout, the pair sneak into Regina’s garage and find a broken shovel that
matches a shovel fragment they uncovered in the hole where Kathryn’s heart was
found. But when Emma comes back with a
search warrant to legally find the broken shovel, she finds that the shovel had
been removed. Reasonably frustrated, she
lashes out at August, believing that he’d betrayed her by tipping Regina
off. Without that crucial bit of
evidence, as well as Mary Margret’s disastrous meeting with the DA (oh, so
you’ve got King George’s Storybrooke counterpart to interview her, Regina? As in, the person who shares your distain for
Snow White? Well, this just gets better
and better, doesn’t it?), Emma cannot do anything to keep Mary Margret from
being taken to trial. To add insult to
injury, Emma then discovers Sidney Glass had placed a bug in her office, hidden
within a vase of flowers, and realizes that was how Regina was tipped off that
they knew about the shovel. Contrite,
Emma seeks out August to apologize for doubting him. At that moment, Ruby finds a very alive
Kathryn in the alleyway behind Granny’s Diner.
Which, of course, is going to help throw the whole case against Mary
Margret out. How can you have murdered
someone who isn’t dead?

So, was
Regina right in blaming Snow for what happened to Daniel? I suppose it depends on who you ask, but I
personally think it was a tad unreasonable of Regina to carry around her grudge
for so long. Yes, Snow was wrong to
break her promise about keeping the secret, but she was a ten year old girl,
and no matter which way you look at it, Cora manipulated her into sharing the
secret by taking advantage of her childlike naivety. Besides, Regina and Daniel could have run
away right after Snow White found out about them. What was stopping them from leaving that very
night? The scene with Snow and Cora
seemed to be taking place during the daytime, which gave me the impression that
Regina didn’t cut and run right after her conversation with Snow White and
waited until the following evening to try and leave with Daniel. I can understand Regina might have wanted to
say goodbye to her father, seeing as he’s the parent who obviously, unlike
Cora, loves her unconditionally, but she could have left him a note. It couldn’t have been because she was hoping
to get Cora’s approval, because I’m sure Regina knew that was never going to
happen. Again, what was stopping them
from setting off that very night?

Monday, June 29, 2015

I’m lost-
how did Jefferson/The Mad Hatter retain his memories of his life in the
Enchanted Forest? We know Regina and
Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold remember, but that’s because they were both involved
in the casting and production of the curse.
And August remembers for reasons that will be revealed later on this
season. What’s Jefferson’s excuse? Besides, wasn’t he trapped in Wonderland? Did he finally get his hat to work, but it
brought him back right after Regina’s curse took effect and he couldn’t make a
return trip for some reason? Is this
something that’s explained in the Wonderland spin-off, which I have yet to see? Answers, please!

This episode
picks up right where the last episode left off, with Mary Margret breaking out
of jail with the use of the key she’d found in her cell. Upon discovering she’s missing, Emma goes off
to find her and runs into a man called Jefferson. Noticing he’s limping, Emma decides to drive
him home. But shortly after helping him
get home, she realizes a bit too late that he’d deceived her and drugged her
tea. Upon regaining consciousness, she
finds out that not only has Jefferson been spying on her, quite possibly from
the moment she first came to Storybrooke, but he’s also managed to capture Mary
Margret as well. Jefferson tries to
force Emma into helping him building a new magic hat, challenging her to start
believing. Of course, things don’t exactly
go his way. In the end, Emma manages to
convince Mary Margret to not run away, and she returns to the sheriff’s station
just in time to avoid being caught out of her cell. We also learn that Rumpelstiltskin had been
the one who placed the key in her cell because Regina put him up to it,
prompting us to once again ask what exactly his game is.

I’m really
curious where those other doors within the magic hat lead? It’s safe to conclude the green curtain door
leads to the Land of Oz, but there were plenty of other doors. Will we be able to explore that in future
seasons? Make it happen, show writers!

How adorable
was Jefferson/The Mad Hatter’s little girl, Grace? Every time she appeared on screen, I just
wanted to give her a big hug. You could
tell she was an all-around good girl, perfectly content with what she had. She even was able to graciously accept not
being able to get the stuffed rabbit from the disguised Regina’s toy cart. Her father really did a wonderful job in
raising her. And you could see that
Grace was Jefferson’s whole world. So
it’s not too surprising that he allowed himself to be manipulated into helping
Regina when she promised him a better life for his little girl. Speaking of which, come on,
Regina! While I understand you wanting
your dad back and all, what you did to Jefferson during the Enchanted Forest flashback was a jerk move, and you know
it!

A few
episodes ago, we see that Ruby/Red has retained her ability to track
people. In much the same way, Mary
Margret discovers her dormant fighting abilities in this episode, so that was
cool to see. I guess it’s like riding a
bike. Once you learn something, you
never really forget, even if you're under the effects of a curse.

This episode
is really notable for the whole scene with Jefferson trying to force Emma to
believe. While Henry and, to a lesser
extent, August, have been attempting to get Emma to that point, they were
clearly using the slow-and-steady method.
Jefferson, however, uses the direct, blunt approach. But, while I do understand why Emma is
reluctant to accept the things Jefferson tells her, you would think the events
of this episode would have convinced her, particularly after seeing the
illustrations of Jefferson in Henry’s book.
That and the fact that he seemingly vanished after falling out the
window. (So, did the hat work after all?)
I know it would have made me at least consider the possibility. Emma, you really are a stubborn one, aren’t
you?

Friday, June 26, 2015

The
Enchanted Forest subplot for this episode takes place after the events of ‘7:15 AM’ and ‘What Happened to Fredrick.’
Prince Charming continues to search for Snow White, with Red’s
assistance. But because Snow took
Rumpelstiltskin’s Forgetfulness Potion, she not only doesn’t remember loving
Charming, but she’s also forgotten who she really is, as she tries to kill a
random bird and is downright cruel to the dwarfs. To find Snow, Charming goes to
Rumpelstiltskin for help and ends up trading his cloak in exchange for the
information on Snow White’s whereabouts.
His first attempt at getting through to her, through the power of True
Love’s Kiss, ends in a failure because, as Jiminy points out when he pops up to
help Charming out, ‘how can she remember who you are when she’s lost sight of who she is?’ This inspires Charming to allow himself to
get hit by the arrow Snow tries to kill Evil Queen Regina with. The whole sequence that follows is a very
well-written one, and quite reminiscent of the scene in the fourth Shrek movie. Unfortunately, even though Snow regains her
memories, their reunion is short-lived, as King George’s soldiers capture
Charming immediately afterward. Snow
White vows to rescue Charming, with the seven dwarfs, who promptly forgive her
for her actions while under the Forgetfulness Potion’s effects, agreeing to
help her.

In
Storybrooke, Emma is trying to search for proof that Mary Margret was set up
for the murder of Kathryn, particularly after a hunting knife, the instrument
believed to have cut out the heart Ruby found, is discovered hidden in the
apartment Emma and Mary Margret share. She
ends up getting nowhere because there are no signs that anyone had broken
in. Henry, thanks to the help of the
mysterious August (who tells Henry that he shares his goal in getting Emma to
believe in the fairy tales within Henry’s book), finds Regina’s skeleton keys
and brings them to Emma, who finds out that one of the skeleton keys can open
the door to her and Mary Margret’s apartment.
However, Emma knows the discovery of these skeleton keys won’t be enough
to help Mary Margret when the DNA tests performed on the heart Ruby found state
that the heart was indeed Kathryn’s, so she turns to Mr. Gold in
desperation. Unfortunately, before
anything can be done to help build up a strong defense for Mary Margret, she
discovers a key beneath her jail cell cot which she discovers can open the cell
door and uses it to break out of prison.

David really
does a number in this episode. Possibly
because he’d spent so long in a coma, the curse’s memory-altering effects
clearly don’t affect him as strongly as the others, as his true memories are
seemingly trying to resurface. This
results in him having hazy memories of Snow attempting to kill Evil Queen
Regina. Of course, since the memory is
only hazy, he’s understandably confused, and the fact that evidence suggesting
that Mary Margret may have killed Kathryn is continuing to mount only makes it
worse. For that reason, I don’t blame
him for being confused and at a loss trying to figure out what his faint
memories mean. That said, it was a
pretty dumb move for him to practically accuse Mary Margret, particularly
after, as she states herself, she stood by him when it looked as if he might
have had something to do with Kathryn’s disappearance. So, I also can’t blame Mary Margret for
angrily dismissing David. This really
was a no-win situation on David’s part.

The episode
ends with us finally seeing the reason why Rumpelstiltskin wanted one of Snow
White’s hairs in exchange for the Forgetfulness Potion. After obtaining Charming’s cloak, he manages
to extract one of Charming’s hairs from the cloak and places it into a vial
along with Snow’s hair. The moment both
hairs are encased inside the vial, they react to each other, forming a glowing
double helix. So, apparently, all you
need to bottle up love is to obtain two hairs from people who share True
Love? Okay, makes sense to me. And we see in the final episode of this
season exactly why he wanted to obtain a vial of Essence of True Love. (That doesn’t explain why Mr. Gold is so keen
to help them now, however. Come on, guy. What’s your game?)

Thursday, June 25, 2015

You know,
out of all the episodes that have aired so far, this is the one I have the
hardest time sitting through. Not
because it’s particularly dull and boring, but because it’s just so mean
spirited. It is apparently Miner’s Day,
some fancy Storybrooke-specific holiday, and Mary Margret and Leroy (Grumpy’s
Storybrooke counterpart) team up to sell some candles in order to raise
money. Money that the Storybrooke nuns need to save their nunnery from
foreclosure at Mr. Gold’s hands. But
because everyone in town still has a bug up their butt about the whole Mary
Margret/David/Katheryn thing, they all refuse to buy a single candle from them,
going so far as to slam the door in their faces? Nice community spirit you’ve got there,
Storybrooke! Kudos! I’m not going to even touch the whole debate
about what Mary Margret and David did, because, yes, they probably could have
handled the whole situation better, particularly since no one has regained
their memories of who they really are yet.
But this shouldn’t have been about what they did or didn’t do. It’s about saving the convent! What the people of Storybrooke were doing by
snubbing Mary Margret and Leroy’s fundraiser was ultimately going to punish a
group of people who had nothing to do with the whole affair debacle. Can you see why I hate this episode? And yes, I realize things turn out all right
in the end, but that’s only because Leroy destroyed that electrical transformer
thingamajig (which I admit was pretty awesome), but that’s just one little drop
of good in an ocean of irritation. And
that scene at the end, which is supposed to indicate that Granny has forgiven
Mary Margret? Yeah, that’s great and
all, but I think Granny, not to mention the rest of Storybrooke, have reason to
need forgiveness as well.

There’s also
the Enchanted Forest subplot, which explains what Grumpy was talking about back
in ‘7:15 AM’ about how he was in love
once. This flashback reveals how some
fairy dust was accidentally dropped onto Grumpy’s egg (so, in this show’s mythos,
dwarfs are born from eggs? Interesting
choice.) Only, back then, he was known
as Dreamy because, on account of this fairy dust, he was the most optimistic
and hopeful of the dwarfs. He happens to
cross paths with a fairy called Nova, and the two share an instant connection. But everyone around them dismisses their
feelings (i.e. ‘dwarfs can’t fall in love’ etc.). All except for Belle, who made a surprise
appearance in this episode. I was really
glad to see her again, and it was so sweet of her to encourage Dreamy/Grumpy to
be with Nova. This clearly takes place
after her time with Rumpelstiltskin, and you can see how her time with him is
inspiring her speech to Dreamy/Grumpy. When
Dreamy/Grumpy and Nova decide to run away together, the Blue Fairy decides to
stick her nose into their business and tells Dreamy/Grumpy to leave Nova. But my question is, why? Why couldn’t they be together? I mean Dreamy/Grumpy was a dwarf who mined
diamonds. Diamonds that were broken down
into magic dust that fairies like Nova gathered. Sounds like a perfect match to me. Besides, what’s this crap about how being
with him will prevent Nova from being a fairy?
First off, Blue, why do you
care? You made it rather clear in the
first scene of this episode that you didn’t think she had what it took. Even if what you said was true, and running
away together would prevent Nova from being a fairy, and how Dreamy/Grumpy had
a responsibility to mine the diamonds, etc.?
Come on, it’s not like there aren’t other fairies and dwarfs running
around to pick up the slack. You mean to
tell me losing one pair of hands is going to be so catastrophic? Besides, Nova even said, in not so many
words, that she didn’t care about not being a fairy anymore, as long as she
could be with someone who was clearly her true love. And yes, I do believe that what we were
seeing between those two was true love, ‘cause, why else would Leroy and Sister
Astrid still feel drawn to each other, even with the curse still in effect? While I get that Nova’s dream was initially
to be a great fairy, dreams can change.
People can, and oftentimes do, switch paths. Why are fairies like Nova and dwarfs like
Dreamy/Grumpy denied that same opportunity?
This makes no sense to me. At
all. Is this a class discrimination
thing? Are you implying that just
because someone is from a species apart from human, they are automatically
unworthy to the same rights and opportunities?
Do you realize how much that sounds like a warped mix of the feudal system
and racial segregation?

Needless to
say, this whole entire episode just makes me angry, so I’m just going to wrap
it up here. Plot stuff happens,
Kathryn’s still missing, she never made it to Boston, phone records (which may
have been tampered with since we see they came through Regina) indicate she was
on the phone with David right before she disappeared, Emma pulls David in for
questioning, blah blah blah. Moving on,
next episode.

Red Handed

Ruby/Red is
a werewolf? There’s a twist to the story
of Little Red Riding Hood. (Though, not
too original, as that plotline was previously explored in the 2011 movie, which
also has the heroine’s main love interest named Peter.) And that whole red herring with Red’s
boyfriend, Peter, possibly being the wolf?
(Peter the wolf? HA!) My heart really goes out to Red. The knowledge that she killed a boy she
loved? I don’t know how I could live
with that sort of thing. And what a nasty
way for Peter to go, too. (Pffft. Once
Upon a Time- a family show!) Still,
this whole thing could have been avoided if Granny had told Red the truth from
the start. I understand wanting to
protect her from the burden, but that clearly didn’t work out. And sometimes, the best way to keep someone
safe is to make sure they know what they’re up against, so they can protect
themselves as well. At least Granny
acknowledges her mistake in keeping the truth from Red, so that does count for
something. On a positive note, we see
how Red and Snow White first met. (Who
else giggled at the obvious origin of Snow’s Storybrooke name?) It’s really admirable how Snow wasn’t the
least bit afraid of her newfound friend, even after finding out that she was a
werewolf. Instead, she immediately
reached out to her and focused on getting her away before the hunters arrived
on the scene. I don’t think many people
could have done the same. I’m left
wondering, though. What happened to
Granny after that scene? She clearly
survived, as we see her knitting what ends up being Emma’s baby blanket in the
pilot episode. Who else is curious to
see how she handled things with the hunters?

Meanwhile,
in Storybrooke, Ruby’s relationship with her grandmother is strained when,
after an argument, Ruby quits her job at the diner. In an attempt to help her out, especially
after seeing how well Ruby does at answering the phone, Emma offers her a job
as her assistant. It’s by working as
Emma’s assistant that Ruby discovers her innate gift of tracking people down,
something that’s carried over from her true identity as Red in the Enchanted
Forest. First, she helps locate David in
the woods when he starts blacking out again.
(Can I ask what exactly triggered David’s sleepwalking/blackout thing this
time? Did he get bonked on the head off-screen? Or was that happening all along without our knowledge?) Then she discovers a box buried in the ground
near the T(r)oll Bridge. A box that has
a human heart inside it. While finding
that heart proves to be a bit too much for Ruby to handle, leaving her to
returning to the diner and making amends with Granny (who tells Ruby that she’d
been wanting to train Ruby to take her place at running the diner one day),
things take a turn for the worst when tests performed on the box the heart was
found in revealed Mary Margret’s fingerprints were all over the box. Really, show, can we please let these people
have one moment to just breathe? We’ve
barely allowed them to recover from the whole affair blowout. Now they throw this possible murder subplot
at us. Still, at least they’re no longer
dragging their feet in terms of the plot, so I probably shouldn’t complain.

I was left
wondering something about Ruby and Granny after this episode. While it was established that Red needed her
cloak to keep her transformations at bay, Ruby clearly doesn’t have that cloak
in Storybrooke. I gather that the
curse’s power is keeping her transformation from happening, but the full moon
clearly has some effect on them. At
least, we know it does on Granny, who states that the scar she has on her arm,
which was what infected her with the werewolf gene years ago, starts to hurt
during the full moon. So, does Ruby feel
some effect from the full moon, too?
Does she just get more irritable than normal? Is that what led her to blow up and quit in
the beginning of this episode?

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

So, to quote
Michael from 10 Things I Hate About You,
‘The sh*t hath hitith the fan... ith.’ Thanks to Regina, Kathryn finds out about
Mary Margret and David’s secret meetings and, as a result of her confronting
Mary Margret on school grounds, the whole town instantly finds out about them,
too. I’m kinda bugged by the direction
this episode goes in at this point. I
won’t deny that under regular circumstances (because, let’s face it, having
your true identities being Snow White and Prince Charming is not a regular
circumstance), seeing a married man is not okay, but everyone’s reactions to
Mary Margret after they’re found out still seem a tad extreme to me. Everyone in town just turns on her in an
instant. I get that this is one of those
small towns where everyone knows each other, but to have the whole town turn their back on you? They’re acting like Mary Margret burned down
an orphanage, or strangled a bunch of cute little fuzzy kittens. Was everyone in town really that invested in seeing David and Kathryn work out? Even Granny, someone who I gather has known
Mary Margret for ages, starts snubbing her.
I know if I found out one of my friends messed up like this, while I would probably be disappointed,
I wouldn’t just desert her the way everyone else seems to be doing with Mary
Margret. (Props to Emma for being
probably the only person in town who tries to comfort Mary Margret after the
whole ordeal.) What made watching this
even more uncomfortable is how we never see David getting the same sort of
treatment, particularly since he is kinda the one who was more at fault here,
what with not coming clean with Kathryn like he was supposed to earlier. What’s with that, Storybrooke? Why are you clearly punishing the other woman
but not the man as well? Does everyone have
this whole ‘oh, boys will be boys’
mindset about the whole thing? Is this
town just full of chauvinists? What is
this?

Moving on, I
can’t help but wonder. Is there a reason why Boston holds such an appeal for
the people of Storybrooke? Back in the
pilot episode, we overhear a snippet of an argument between Ruby and Granny which states Ruby had plans to move to Boston but couldn’t because
Granny’s heart attack had nipped those plans in the bud. In this episode, Kathryn reveals she applied
to a law school in Boston. This is the
second time that someone from Storybrooke seems drawn to Boston, the city Emma
had been living in before Henry sought her out.
Is this just a coincidence, or something else?

We finally
learn the mysterious stranger’s name is August.
In this episode, we see him meticulously repairing Henry’s book. So, was it damaged off-screen? I know Henry said in an earlier episode that
it was an old book, but…. I don’t know,
I’m not entirely certain why August had to repair the book, unless he’s trying
to strengthen the book’s binding. I know
few of my hardcover books have some pages that are falling out. I guess that’s what he’s doing? Again, I’m not entirely certain, but it does indicate
he knows all about the proper order of the stories within the book. After all, I’m seeing no page numbers printed
on the pages. By then end, he reveals
himself as being Henry’s alley in the quest of getting Emma to believe in fairy
tales and magic, particularly when he secretly returns to now-repaired book to
Emma. But at this point, they still
don’t let us know who this guy really is, or how he even knows about
Storybrooke.

Of course,
there’s also the Enchanted Forest subplot, where we learn that Charming, after
the events of the ‘7:15 AM'’
flashback, tried to escape from King George’s castle and the arranged marriage,
only to end up being cornered by Princess Abigail. Surprisingly, Princess Abigail is not upset
about Charming’s actions, and admits she didn’t want to marry him, either. Because she has her own true love. Meaning this whole entire time, Kathryn had
her own soulmate, who we see is living in Storybrooke as the school’s gym
teacher. Making the whole entire issue
with her and David completely pointless?!
Please excuse me while I bang my head against the wall. To Kathryn’s credit, she does realize by the
end of this episode that her feelings for David parallel the ones Princess
Abigail had for Charming (she loves him but isn’t in love with him). And what
exactly compelled the gym teacher/Fredrick to be driving to the Storybrooke
town line, mere moments after Kathryn tried to leave town to go to the Boston
law school, where he discovers Kathryn’s abandoned car? Wonder what would have happened if Kathryn
had just paused for a moment when she was matching up to Mary Margret to
actually glance at the gym teacher.

We also get
our first visit to Lake Nostros in this flashback, a lake that’s supposed to
have magical healing powers. During this
visit to the lake, Charming fights against a siren to obtain some of the lake’s
water in order to restore Princess Abigail’s true love, Fredrick, who had been accidentally
turned to gold by King Midis. (Remember
King Midis mentioning Fredrick back in ‘The
Shepherd?’)

Finally, we
see the return of Regina’s skeleton key collection, which Emma had discovered
in ‘Fruit of the Poisonous Tree.’ It
turns out that Regina can use these keys to just let herself into every single
house, and possibly any shop, within Storybrooke. And I thought Rumple turning Gaston into a
rose was creepy. This woman can just
come into someone’s home at any time?
Lady, you’re sick! I’m sorry, but
you are!

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

There’s a
hand! There is a severed hand sitting
atop a pedestal in Rumpelstiltskin’s castle!
It’s a bit hard to see, but it can be spotted most clearly when Belle
takes out the vase from the cabinet. Is
it wrong that I was excited to see that?
After all, it might not even be what I think it is, as it looks quite
withered and decayed. But it is clearly
a left hand, if the position of the thumb is any indication. So, yeah, I’m going to wonder about
that. If anyone is wondering why I’m
focused on such a random detail, just wait until a certain episode in season 4.

This episode
was really a breath of fresh air, especially since the last few episodes were
rather mediocre, with the exception of ‘7:15
AM’ and the Enchanted Forest subplot in ‘Desperate Souls’. We get the
return of Ashley (Cinderella’s Storybrooke counterpart), now with baby in tow,
who ends up joining Mary Margret and Ruby for a Girls Night Out to celebrate
St. Valentine’s Day, or Singles Awareness Day in this case, because even though
Ashley had reunited with her boyfriend, Sean, during the events of ‘The Price of Gold’, he had to work that
night. (Was Mary Margret drinking an
apple martini during the Girls Night Out?
Ahhhhhh.) The evening ends with
Sean showing up during his break in order to propose to Ashley, followed by a
moment between Mary Margret and David, who are trying to figure out how they
can make their relationship work.

But the main
plot of this episode involved a feud between Mr. Gold and a florist called Mr.
French, a feud that escalates when Mr. French steals a bunch of items from
Gold’s house to get back at Gold for repossessing his florist van. However, when Emma helps recover his stolen
items, Mr. Gold goes off the deep end, stating that there is a specific item
that’s still missing. His actions from
here on in indicate that this missing item is something extremely important to
him, particularly when he goes so far as to kidnap Mr. French and very nearly
beats him to death. In addition, his
rants while attacking Mr. French also hint at something even deeper going on
here. It’s the Enchanted Forest subplot
that reveals the reasons for Mr. Gold’s actions. In that subplot, we’re introduced to a new
addition to our cast of fairy tale characters.
Namely Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Much like the heroine of the original tale, this version of Belle agrees
to go live with the Beast (in this case, Rumpelstiltskin) in exchange for his
protection over her family and village, which are in danger of being wiped out
in the Ogre Wars. (Just how long was
this Ogre War going on, anyway? We saw
that they were occurring during the events of the ‘Desperate Souls’ flashback, but as we learn later, that flashback
took place hundreds of years before the time of Snow White, Charming, etc. This is clearly taking place closer to the
present, as Evil Queen Regina is around.
Were there multiple Ogre Wars spaced out throughout the years? Were these wars the Enchanted Forest’s
version of World War I and World War II?)

Like with
every version of Beauty and the Beast that’s ever been written, the longer
Belle stays with Rumpelstiltskin, the more you see them starting to genuinely like
each other. In fact,
Rumpelstiltskin comes very close to opening up to Belle about his son, who he’s
lost. That is, until Evil Queen Regina’s
manipulation results in Rumpelstiltskin balking and ordering Belle away in an attempt
to bury his head in the sand. Sometime
after Belle is cast out, Evil Queen Regina pays Rumpelstiltskin a visit,
informing him that after Belle left, her father, Maurice (Mr. French), had her
locked up and virtually tortured until Belle took her own life. And you can see how much that information
upset Rumple. So much so that he takes
the teacup that Belle had chipped earlier in the episode and gives it a place
of honor in his castle. And it’s this
same chipped cup that Mr. Gold was so upset over loosing. The cup that it’s
eventually revealed had actually been taken by Regina in order to force Mr.
Gold to admit what we’ve known all along- that he has maintained his memories
of his life before Regina’s curse created Storybrooke.

I’m just
going to come out and say that of all the old fairy tales, Beauty and the Beast
has always been a favorite of mine, and it remains among one of my favorite
Disney Princess movies. (In fact, it’s
quite possibly my all-time favorite animated film from the Disney Renaissance
period.) So, I couldn’t not enjoy seeing
this take on the old story. And it was
cool to see all the little homages to the original Disney version. Even the Enchanted Rose is referenced. Speaking of which, Rumpelstiltskin turning
Gaston into the rose and then giving it to Belle? Yeah, that was rather sweet, but also really
creepy. Particularly since I was left
wondering about the implications of that.
Did getting turned into a rose also kill Gaston? If that’s what the case was, that was a really
dark turn, and one of the moments when I was thinking ‘this is a family show?’

And finally,
this episode ends with a twist that Shyamalan would be proud of. While Evil Queen Regina told Rumpelstiltskin
that Belle had died during the Enchanted Forest flashback, the episode ends
with us seeing that she’s actually alive, and Regina is keeping her locked up
in some psychiatric cell in the basement of Storybrooke’s hospital. I remember when I first saw this episode, I
was theorizing that Belle, like Regina and Rumple, had maintained her memories
somehow, which would explain why she was in a psychiatric ward. I imagine it would have been very easy for
Regina to convince people that a young woman who was insisting that everyone
was actually a fairy tale character was mentally unstable and have her
committed. Of course, that didn’t turn
out to be the case. But it was what I
originally thought.

On a final
note, nice bit of foreshadowing in this episode, with Evil Queen Regina
mentioning a deal with a ‘certain mermaid.’
A deal that we’ll see occurring in season 3. It just makes me wonder- exactly how far in
advance to the show writers plan out these episodes?

Monday, June 22, 2015

Continuity! I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love continuity! Last episode kept talking about a big storm
that was going to come through town, and it hit Storybrooke during Mary Margret
and David’s mission to return the dove to her flock. In this episode, we see the storm caused some
significant damage to the castle playhouse that Henry and Emma would meet up
at.

All in all,
this was not one of Emma’s best moments.
In her determination to get back at Regina for having Henry’s castle
demolished, she swerved rather badly.
This resulted in her getting egg on her face and Regina coming out
smelling like a rose. It was a bit tough
to watch Emma in this episode, because while I understand her anger at Regina,
I just had a feeling that the plans she and Sidney came across during their
little espionage stunt had something to do with building a new playground
place. Thankfully, to Emma’s credit,
she’s enough of an adult to acknowledge she messed up royally (no pun intended)
and graciously accepted the consequences of her actions. That’s a very admirable quality in itself,
particularly since there are some people who would try to make excuses for
their mistakes and/or try to place the blame on someone else (three guesses who I'm referring to). But
Emma doesn’t do that here, so you have to admire her for that.

As for Regina, a part of me does have to
admit she had a point in this episode, what with being concerned for Henry’s
wellbeing and not wanting him to be near something that could potentially be
dangerous. On the other hand, I’m
someone who sorta went through what Henry did in this episode, making my
understanding of Regina’s position begrudging at best. Growing up, there was this really fun wooden
playground on school grounds, and I have fond memories of that playground. But, sometime after I left Elementary School,
it was suddenly decided that the playground wasn’t safe for children and they
tore it down. To this day, I’m still
kinda irked about that, because my classmates and I had been using that
playground for years, and to my knowledge, we turned out perfectly fine. While I’m sure we all got our share of
scrapes and skinned knees while playing on this playground, that’s part of
being a kid. Kids need to experience the
occasional bump and bruise. If you deny
them that, they might never learn how to get back up after a fall and dust
themselves off. Besides, like Emma pointed out, I’m sure they could have easily
repaired that castle. So, Regina, your
intentions may be good on paper, but your actions were kinda bordering on
helicopter mom territory.

The
Enchanted Forest storyline was also a bit hard to stomach. It was mostly just illustrating the unhealthy
relationship Sidney Glass/the Magic Mirror had with Regina. We learn Sidney was originally a genie who
was found by King Leopold, Snow White’s father.
King Leopold, who was clearly a very kind man, chose to use his first
wish to grant the genie’s freedom and his second wish to gift the third wish to
the genie himself. The freed genie, who
had seen the consequences of wishes gone wrong a million times over, chose not
to use the third wish but instead decided to stay with King Leopold. But upon meeting Regina, he develops
feelings for her, which ultimately results in him being manipulated into
assassinating King Leopold with the use of a pair of Agrabahn vipers, a deadly
species of snake. The fact that he’d
turn on someone who was supposed to be his dear friend is hard enough at it is,
but it’s made even more painful when we see Regina had only pretended to love
the genie, and had intentionally set him up to take the fall for King Leopold’s
death. And this is when we get into the
unhealthy territory. The genie, even
after learning that Regina played him for a sap and never loved him to begin
with, still refuses to leave her side, using the third wish he never intended
to use in order to make it possible.
Which of course, condemns him to live out the rest of his life as the
Magic Mirror. And that level of
unhealthy love he has for Regina has clearly transferred over to Sidney, who,
as it’s revealed in the final scene, has actually been a mole charged with
helping Regina spy on Emma throughout the whole episode. Really, now?
This is a woman who had you follow around her son and his birth mom,
taking photos of them without their knowledge, and go along with this scheme
that was clearly designed to drive said birth mom away from the son. And you still think it a good idea to align
yourself with her? Sidney, I’m sorry,
but you really are a sad, pathetic little man.
You have my pity, but not my sympathy.

As a whole,
I say this is one episode that could be skipped without missing too much. The only thing of note is Emma discovering
Regina has a sizable collection of skeleton keys in her office, something that
will come into play in a few more episodes.
And while we do get one more scene of the Mysterious Stranger, who is
clearly interested in Henry’s book of stories (and even manages to obtain it by
the end of the episode), we already were aware that this guy knows more than
he’s letting on, so seeing this is just dragging it out.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

So, Hansel
and Gretel join our cast of characters.
Or Nicholas and Ava, to use the names of their Storybrooke counterparts. However, I really have to label this episode
as one of the closest things to a filler episode that OUAT has. Particularly since after this episode, these
two new additions are never really seen or even mentioned again. (They may appear occasionally in the
background, but as no one ever acknowledges their presence, it’s hard to
tell.) The main point of this episode
seems to be Emma doing what she can to keep Nicholas and Ava from ending up in
the foster system, so they won’t go through what she did, particularly since
they will undoubtedly be separated if they do wind up in the system. We do get a scene of Henry asking Emma about
his father, but the story Emma gives him, about how the baby daddy was a
fireman who died saving a family from a burning building? As she admits to Mary Margret later on, it
was just that- a story. Personally, I
think Emma coming up with this fabrication was a combination of her not wanting
to disappoint Henry, and her reluctance to relive what really happened,
indicating that that is a scar that never really healed, and for good reason. Overall plot-wise, apart from seeing how Evil
Queen Regina actually obtained the infamous Poisoned Apple, it’s not until the
end of this episode that things started picking up again. We see Mary Margret having a moment with
Emma, who finally tells her Henry’s thoughts about who they really are to each
other, followed by Mary Margret reacting to Emma’s baby blanket. Then, in the next scene, Emma is looking at
an old article about how a seven-year-old boy found a baby (her) on the side of
a road, mere seconds before someone brand new rides into town on a motorcycle. While this newcomer doesn’t give his name at
this point, we’ll eventually learn how ironic it was that he made his first
appearance right after we’re shown that old article about baby Emma and the
seven-year-old.

There’s
nothing really more to be said about this episode. Although, I did get a kick out of Evil Queen
Regina’s ‘I would’ve gone with gravy.’ (You had to see the episode for this
one.) And seeing that Sneezy’s
Storybrooke counterpart is Mr. Clark, a man who works at a drugstore. Someone who sneezes randomly, even under the
effects of Regina’s curse, ends up working in a drug store? Gotta love this
show’s style of humor. On a final note-
to my knowledge, this episode marks the point when we start seeing Emma wearing
the laces of Graham’s boots around her left wrist. You can see it most clearly in the final
scene when Emma is talking with Mary Margret.
While it’s not something that’s directly stated or pointed out in the
show, the actress who portrays Emma in the show confirmed that it is indeed the
shoelace from Graham’s boot in a Twitter post.
I do admit I like that little detail, especially since he’s rarely even
mentioned from this point on. As I said
before, Graham was a likable character, so he deserves to at have an ongoing
homage to him.

7:15 AM

Ah, another
example of history repeating itself. In the
Enchanted Forest, Snow White is desperate for a chance to forget about Prince
Charming, who is about to marry Midis’ daughter, Princess Abigail. So much so, she actually goes to
Rumpelstiltskin for a Forgetfulness Potion.
And in Storybrooke, Mary Margret cannot get David out of her head,
resorting to borderline stalking by memorizing his schedule. Of course, while the Enchanted Forest
plotline ends on a low note, with King George forcing Snow White to tell
Charming she doesn’t love him (threatening to have Charming killed if she
doesn’t), followed by Snow taking the Forgetfulness Potion, the Storybrooke
plotline ends with Mary Margret and David deciding to stop trying to deny their
growing feelings for each other. But we’re left with a sense of foreboding, as
Regina witnessed their kiss. (Guys, I
know you were caught up in the moment and all, but it was really a dumb move to
kiss when you were out in the open, standing right along Main Street. ANYONE could have seen you, and they did!)

How adorable
were Mary Margret and David in this episode? While I know it’s a longshot, I’d like to
think that the dove they try to reunite with her flock is the exact same bird
Charming uses to send his letter to Snow White.
They certainly look like the
same species. If I’m right, how precious
is that? The same bird bringing them
together twice! And that vet talking
about the dove being monogamous birds with Mary Margret and David standing
right there? Nice metaphor.

At Regina’s
urging, Emma delves into the mystery of who the newcomer we met last episode is. However, we’re not really given any
answers. Okay, he has a typewriter. But that explains nothing. Although, now
that I think about it, this show is supposed to take place in modern
times. At least, it is during the
Storybrooke scenes. Who still uses a
typewriter? Can you even get typewriter ribbon anymore? I’m sure if you can, it’s not easy to come
by, leaving me wondering if it’s worth the effort. So the fact that he has a
typewriter instead of a laptop only further makes you wonder just who this guy
is. All we get about him are hints that he knows
more about Storybrooke than he lets on.

This episode is mostly notable for the small
touches. We’re shown the friendship
between Snow White and Red Riding Hood for the first time, something that continues
popping up again as the story continues.
Snow White also has her first meeting with the Seven Dwarfs (Wait, there
were originally eight dwarfs? Poor Stealthy.) In addition, we’re also told that Grumpy was
once in love with someone, a plot point that’s further explored in a later
episode. And there’s Rumpelstiltskin
taking one of Snow’s hairs as payment for the Forgetfulness Potion. That’s going to be important later on.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

To be
honest, I think this is the point when I started to lose interest in what was
going on in Storybrooke. That’s not to
say I considered stopping watching the show.
It was just that they were reaching the part when you started saying ‘Okay, we get it now. Henry’s right about the curse, but he’s not
having much luck in getting Emma to believe it.
Can we please pick up the pace, already?’ For example, this episode’s Storybrooke
plotline involves Emma and Regina’s stooge, Sidney Glass, both running for the
position of town sheriff. And that’s basically
it. Granted, there is a minor subplot of
Henry temporarily losing his desire to fight against Regina’s curse, as well as
him doubting that good can win against evil.
And we also see more evidence of how good Mr. Gold is at being a
manipulative snake in the grass, what with him resorting to arson in order to make Emma look good in the town's eyes, and how he more-or-less revealed he knew Emma would take the high road and reveal his trickery in the end, which would only result in her looking like an even bigger hero to the people of Storybrooke because not many people were brave enough to stand up to him.

There wasn’t much else in the Storybrooke plotline for this episde. So, for a good
chunk of the remainder of season one, I was mostly just interested in the
Enchanted Forest plotlines. And the one
in this episode was particularly interesting.
We finally are told some of Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold’s Enchanted Forest
backstory. And what a backstory it is. Not to mention a vitally important one.

We’re introduced to Rumpelstiltskin’s young
son, Baelfire, and shown that they lived during a time of unrest in the
Enchanted Forest. More specifically the
Ogre Wars, something that’ll be referenced a few times in later episodes. It’s clearly a very dangerous time to live
in, as young preteen children are being taken away from their homes and
families and forced to join the army fighting against the ogres. There is no logic to doing this that I can
see. Yes, I know the old saying ‘there’s
strength in numbers,’ but we’re talking about children who clearly have had no
fighting experience or instruction. For
that reason, I cannot blame Rumpelstiltskin at all for his desperation in the
given situation. He knows it’s only a
matter of time before the soldiers come to take Baelfire away and ship him off
to the front lines, where he’ll be little more than a sheep lined up for the
slaughter. That has got to be any
parent’s worst nightmare. We’re also
introduced to the whole mythos of the Dark One, who is basically an all-powerful
dark wizard entity, with one weakness- he is essentially tethered to a magical
dagger, and if someone possesses this dagger, the Dark One must obey that
person. (Magical control over other
people seems to be a recurring theme in this show. First we get the whole
control-through-the-heart-possession thing, and now this.)

There are some very chilling undertones going
on in this episode’s flashbacks. Dark
One Zoso, as we’re able to see by the end, is clearly so willing to be free
from his life as the Dark One, he’s even willing to die. Why else would he put the idea of taking up
the mantle of the Dark One into Rumpelstiltskin’s head by filling him in on the
whole secret about the Dark One’s dagger?
It really makes you wonder, how horrible must it be to live as the Dark
One that you’d be willing to die just
to escape from it? Just think about that
for a second. We do get a brief glimpse
of what it must be like at the end of this episode, too. When Rumpelstiltskin was first starting to
consider taking in that power himself, he fully intended to use the power to
help people; to save his son’s life and make sure none of the other children in
the village had to die. He clearly
wanted to use the power of the Dark One for good. But, once he actually gets that power, his
first act is to commit cold-blooded murder against the soldiers who’d bullied
him earlier in the episode. So much for
using the power for good purposes. It’s
like the old saying goes: absolute power corrupts absolutely. Shame that no one told Rumple that
beforehand.

It was also
this episode when I actually recognized one of the actors for the first time. I realize that probably sounds odd, but in my
defense, I don’t really watch that much television. I hold no interest in some of the other big
shows with large fanbases like Lost, Game of Thrones, and I’ve only seen one or
two episodes of How I Met Your Mother.
In a way, I kinda prefer it this way. With few exceptions, I typically know actors by the name of the character they play, not by their real-life names. When I really get into a
show, I tend to have a slight difficulty in seeing the actors from that show in
another role. For example, I cannot see
Fran Dresher in anything without thinking of her as ‘the flashy girl from
Flushing.’ But in this episode, we are
briefly introduced to the guest-star character, Zoso, the original Dark One. The instant I saw him, I knew I’d seen his
face and heard that voice before. After
a few seconds, I realized why- it was Brad Dourif, who I knew from his role as
Saavedro in Myst III: Exile. But in this
case, I think it’s great that I recognized Zoso as Saavedro, even though I kept
half-expecting him to start calling Rumple Atrus, (the main NPC in the Myst
series). In the game, Saavedro was a man
who had all but completely gone insane because he believed his family and
people had all died, and he’d spent I don’t know how many years alone and
isolated with nothing but painful memories to keep him company. While fans of the show have yet to learn
anything about the character of Zoso, I can only imagine the horrors he’s seen. Because of his role as Saavedro, I ended up incorporating some of Saavedro's traits into Dark One Zoso- borderline insane from his experiences and desperate
for an escape, regardless of what it would take to achieve that. Doing so only ended up helping enhance my appreciation for what happened in this episode.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Wait…. So….
Graham just…. died? Well, that was
unexpected. Seriously, it took me a
while before that final scene properly registered in my mind. The fact that they’d kill off a character so
early in the game? Dang, show. You don’t mess around, do you? Even though Graham wasn’t a regular
character, he was still a likable one, particular after seeing his Enchanted
Forest backstory, which reveals he was the Huntsman who Evil Queen Regina hired
to kill Snow White.

I am very
much fascinated by the fact that Graham’s true memories are triggered upon
kissing Emma. Henry’s theory for this is
because he spared Snow White’s life during his life as the Huntsman, and if he
hadn’t, Emma would never have been born, which meant that they shared a
connection of sorts. That’s a good
theory, but it probably didn’t hurt that Emma, as we’re told later, is The
Product of True Love. And in this show’s
reality, the whole True Love’s Kiss thing is a very potent curse-breaker. And before you ask, no, I’m not suggesting that Graham was Emma’s
true love. If he had been, I’m fairly
certain that their kiss would have restored everyone’s memories, not just
Graham’s. However, notice that Emma
seemed to be developing an interest in Graham, someone who we saw believed in
the importance of having honor during his life as the Huntsman. For those of you who have seen the show in
its entirety so far, what other character is rather big on being a man of
honor? Could this count as indirect
foreshadowing? I honestly do not know.

I might as
well start addressing the big elephant in the room now. More specifically, the relationship between
Graham and Regina. As I said before,
that relationship is disturbing and uncomfortable in general. But after this episode, it’s even more so, as
we see Regina literally had Graham’s heart in her possession. As we’re told in later episodes, possessing
someone’s heart means you’re able to control that person. The person whose heart is being held captive
must obey everything the person who holds the heart says. They have no choice. There’s only one conclusion to be made
here. The trysts between these two were
not even close to being consensual on Graham’s part. Yeah, there’s no other way to say it. Regina was raping Graham for practically
thirty years. And that fact is made even
more uncomfortable to process when you remember how, once Graham made an
attempt to break away from this relationship, Regina goes off and kills him by
crushing his heart. (Personally, I
think Regina chose to do what she did not just because of Graham attempting to
end things between them, but also because she realized that he was starting to
regain his memories and she couldn’t afford to have him informing the other
Storybrooke residents of the truth. Still, murder is murder, no matter which way you slice it.)

And this is
probably the animal-lover in me; I also feel horrible for the Huntsman’s wolf
friend. Just think about it for a
minute. This wolf had been the
Huntsman’s constant companion for who knows how long. It's even briefly hinted that they may have grown up together. When the curse hits, they’re obviously ripped
away from one another. Once the curse is broken and everyone in Storybrooke finds a way to return to the Enchanted Forest, that wolf is never going to
be reunited with his human friend. Just
think about how many stories there are about dogs who mourn the passing of
their human owners. In fact, over in Japan,
there’s even a statue dedicated to a dog named Hachiko who waited faithfully at
a train station for nine years, waiting for his owner to return home from the University of Tokyo where he worked as a professor. The poor dog never knew that his owner had died from a cerebral
hemorrhage while at work. And the bond
between the Huntsman and his wolf was clearly even stronger than that between a
dog and his human owner. Ugh, that poor
wolf!!!!!

One last
question. Gold, what were you doing,
digging around in the woods? We know you
well enough to know you never do anything without there being a reason for
it. Were you burying something? Were you trying to locate a specific
item? Seriously, do they ever explain
that, or is this one of the unsolved mysteries this show presents us with?

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Oh. OH! This
episode was…. UGH!!!! Poor Jiminy! Poor Geppetto! That…is just…indescribably horrible! No joke, my heart was just bleeding for these two at the end! Especially for Jiminy. I can’t imagine how terrible it must have
been for him to live with the guilt over what happened to Geppetto’s
parents! It really was bad luck that he
got stuck with such scavengers for parents.
But… how did he get involved with Rumpelstiltskin in the first
place? There's this one scene where he’s just doing some work for him
out of nowhere. Okay, how’d that happen? Where’d you two even meet?

So, when
Emma first entered into Storybrooke, the electrical wires above her head
started to spark. When she got a room at
Granny’s Bed and Breakfast, the old clock tower started up again. Now, when she takes up the job as Sheriff Graham’s
deputy and puts on the badge, the mines underneath the town go boom? Okay, that’s certainly interesting. What would have happened if she’d actually
bought a house in Storybrooke town limits during the course of this
season? Would the animals in the
surrounding woods start a conga line?
…..No…..no that’s just silly.
Forget I even entertained the thought.

We also see
more development between the amnesiac David and Mary Margret as David recovers
from spending the last 28 years in a coma.
Those two have such great chemistry.
Even if I didn’t recognize them as Snow and Charming, I would probably still
love watching those two together. It
probably doesn’t hurt that these two characters are portrayed by a real-life
couple. We also get more bonding time
between Mary Margret and Emma as they talk about the whole issue of Mary
Margret falling for a man who is supposed to be married. (Which reminds me- I want those s’mores, Mary
Margret! Gimme some! Please?
They look so good!)

You know,
Regina, if you really wanted Henry to stop thinking you were up to something,
maybe, instead of going with your usual tactic of brute force and threatening
people, perhaps you might try, I don’t know, being nice for a change?
Cause, you’re not really giving Henry a reason to not think you’re the
Evil Queen at this point. The more you
try to impose your way on him (like bullying Dr.Hopper/Jiminy into forcing Henry to stop believing that everyone is really a fairy tale character), the more he’s going to run off and put himself in
dangerous situations. Like running off
into a collapsing mine to find physical proof of the curse, for instance. It
was great, however, to see you sorta-kinda working with Emma to save Henry’s
life. It’s a nice testament of things to
come. Although, I get Regina isn’t at
that point where she can accept that yet, so it’s not too surprising that she
went right back to brushing Emma off again the minute Henry was safe. Still, a simple thank you wouldn’t have
killed you, Regina. You’re not the only
one who cares about Henry. Deal with it.

Of course, we also get that groan-worthy ending, where we see that if Henry had been able to travel further into the mine tunnels, he would have found the remains of Snow White's glass coffin, which would have been the perfect bit of proof. Not since the many scenes in An American Tail, when we see Fievel could have been reunited with his family so many times if someone had just bothered to turn around have I felt the need to scream so much.

The Shepherd

So
David/Charming’s origin is revealed in this episode. Also, we get a whole new meaning to the
phrase ‘evil twin.’ Turns out,
David/Charming was part of a set of identical twin boys born to a peasant
woman. The oldest of the twins was given
as a ‘gift’ to King George, who had no heir of his own, by Rumpelstiltskin as
part of some sort of deal. The older
twin, whose name was James, grew up to be a strong
warrior, but was arrogant and prideful. In order to obtain gold for the kingdom when
it began losing its wealth, King George made a bargain with King Midis (yes, that King Midis). If Prince James could slay a dragon that was
terrorizing Midis’ kingdom, King Midis would reward King George with countless
riches. However, when Prince James’
arrogance got him killed before he could even face the dragon, King George had
little choice but to recruit Prince James’ twin, the man we all know as Prince
Charming, who had grown up as a simple shepherd. A plan is devised to have Charming pose as
his dead brother for the sake of image, but while he will present the dragon’s
head to Midis, it is to be King George’s army who really do the fighting. But of course, the knights fail to even lay a
scratch on the beast, with pretty much all of them dying pretty horribly, leaving Charming to utilize the skills he gained as a
shepherd in order to successfully kill the dragon, in David and Goliath
fashion. (Seeing this backstory really
makes me think Prince Charming more than deserves to have his Storybrooke
counterpart named David.) And of course,
as this flashback wraps up, we’re shown how Charming is being forced to
continue his charade as Prince James and marry Midis’ daughter, with King
George blackmailing Charming with his birth mother’s life. (Come to think of it, what exactly WAS
Charming’s real first name? Do they ever reveal it? I know he said I was James back in the
episode when he first met Snow, but this episode seems to indicate he only
adopted that name after he was forced
to impersonate his brother. So, what did
his mother call him beforehand?) Our
last glimpse of the past shows Charming and Princess Abigail riding off
together, en route through the woods, where we all know Snow White is lying in
wait to ambush their carriage. As King
George said, ‘On the road to true love.’

Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, David is out of the
hospital and trying to adjust to life with his ‘wife’ Kathryn, but as Henry
surmises, his time spent in a coma and subsequent amnesia is preventing the
curse from giving him false memories.
His deep connection with Mary Margret/Snow White is also throwing him
for a loop, making it hard for him to connect with Kathryn, and possibly making him able
to unconsciously resist the curse’s effects.
History really does repeat itself. Of course, his subconscious memories of his
true life also lead him into falling prey to the curse’s power in the end, when he sees
the windmill model that supposedly sat in front of the house he was supposed to
share with Kathryn and it connects with his memory of the one that stood in his
birth mother’s farm.

There’s not
much more that’s worth talking about in this episode, sad to say. Emma finds out about Sheriff Graham’s trysts
with Regina. More foreshadowing to how
Regina lost someone she loved. It is interesting to note that this marks the first time David ever interacts with
Emma and Henry, even though you don't get the feeling he feels the same draw to Emma as Mary Margret did. However, David was seemingly drawn to the unicorn mobile in Mr. Gold’s shop;
the one that should have hung over Emma’s crib had the curse never happened. So, that does count for something.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Okay, really
now, people. If you’re going to sign a contract, READ IT FIRST!!!!! It’s one of the first rules of common sense! If
you don’t, this is the sort of crap you might end up dealing with! Anyway, this episode plays around with the
fairy tale of Cinderella, and it’s also the one that really introduces Rumpelstiltskin’s mantra of ‘magic always comes at a price.’ I remember the first time I saw this episode,
I had a real mind-blown moment when Rumpelstiltskin kills the fairy
godmother. Really wasn’t expecting that
to happen. On the other hand, I was
reminded strongly of the original tale of Rumpelstiltskin I heard as a child; specifically
the whole firstborn-child-as-payment thing.
But… why did he want Ella’s kid to begin with? Especially since we learn later on that there
was already someone else’s child he was trying to find (i.e. his own.) Or was it because he knew somehow that
threatening to take away Ashley/Ella’s daughter would be what ultimately leads
Emma to agree to do him a favor at a time of his choosing? If that’s the case, that was a bit too
premeditated, don’t you think? Yeah, I know that this is a guy who is supposed
to be an expert at planning things out, but it still seems a bit too much, even
for Rumpelstiltskin. I also do wonder how Snow White and Ella knew each other
to begin with. Their interaction at the
wedding reception, not to mention Prince Charming and Grumpy’s attempts at helping Ella
save her unborn child, suggests they had a nice little friendship beforehand. Will we ever see how they met?

One of the
underlying themes in this episode was taking a stand and proving to others that
they are wrong about you. When meeting
the pregnant 19-year-old Ashley, who is having severe doubts that she can
handle taking care of her baby, Emma is very quick to reach out to her, telling
her that even though everyone is telling her that she won’t succeed, it will be
her choice, and hers alone, that will determine if they’re right. It’s a really poignant scene, especially when
we realize Emma was also talking about herself here. She’d just been confronted by Regina, who was
rubbing it in that Emma has never stayed in one place for longer than two
weeks, insinuating that it’s only a matter of time before she does the same
thing and leaves Storybrooke. Also, it’s
rather interesting how Emma comments to Ashley that there are no fairy
godmothers in this world, considering who Ashley's fairy tale counterpart is. (It’s also in these opening
scenes that we learn Emma was 18 when she gave birth to Henry, and that she’d
spent a period of time in Tallahassee.
Those facts will be important once we get into the midpoint of season 2. Have I mentioned I love continuity? Because I do.)

Speaking of
undertones, I can’t be the only one who noticed the undertone to Henry and
Emma’s conversation in the beginning of this episode. The part when Henry was telling Emma he
needed something to call her for Operation
Cobra? Was it just me, or was that
his subtle way of asking Emma if he could start calling her ‘Mom?’ If so, that really brings new meaning to Emma
saying ‘you can just call me Emma, for
now.’ Not to mention Henry’s ‘I’m not sure you’re ready yet,’ which
further indicates that’s exactly what he was thinking. Yeah, this whole episode was really about
Emma starting to take up the mantle of Henry’s mother, and nothing will
convince me otherwise.

Can we all
talk about Mr. Gold’s comment to Emma, about how he doesn’t want to see
Ashley's baby being born in jail?
Um…guy? Were you aware about how
such a statement might strike a chord with Emma? Or was that just a coincidence? I never can be too sure with you. Although, his later comments to Emma in the
hospital make me think he did know,
in which case….you sneaky, manipulative little…UGH!

It’s also in
this episode where we first learn of Regina’s secret flings with Sheriff Graham,
which is a bit disturbing to begin with.
Although, that whole relationship will get even more
disturbing/uncomfortable in a later episode, particularly once we see who
Sheriff Graham’s Enchanted Forest identity is.
I’ll elaborate on that a little later on.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Because the analyses for the next two episodes are rather short, I'm going to combine them in one post.

The Thing You Love Most-

So, first it
was don’t drink the water in Mexico, now it’s don’t eat the apples in
Storybrooke. Good safety tip; thanks,
Henry. Anyway, in this episode, quite a
bit of stuff happened. We learn of how
Regina went about casting the curse in the first place, including how she got
it from Maleficent (who had originally obtained it from Regina at an earlier point in time in exchange for the sleeping curse Regina used for the whole Poisoned Apple incident) and how it was apparently
created by Rumpelstiltskin. We’re also
shown how she even ended up killing her own father, whom she did love, (why
else would she end up naming Henry after her father?) in order to complete the
curse. Which begs the question, what
kind of woman would willingly sacrifice someone she loved in order to achieve
her goal? It’s in that basic question
we’re given the chance to see how desperate she is to obtain her victory over
Snow White. Regina even briefly hints at
her reasons for her actions in this episode’s flashbacks, even though we’re not
yet told exactly what happened between these two women. However, I do wonder who exactly were those other people
who helped Regina cast the curse in the first place. Like the blind old hag or the black-bearded
gnome (who is now apparently spending eternity as Regina’s garden
ornament). What exactly was their story? The world may never know.

Meanwhile,
in Storybrooke, Regina really goes out of her way to try and force Emma to
leave town, from trying to get her lackey Sidney Glass, dig up the dirt on Emma’s
past to an underhanded frame-job by forcing Dr. Hopper to willingly share Henry's therapy files with her and then claim Emma had stolen them.
Unfortunately for her, the lengths she goes to only make Emma even more
determined to stay. Seriously, lady, did
you ever read Order of the Phoenix? You remember the part when Hermione commented
about how Umbridge forbidding all Hogwarts students from reading the issue of TheQuibbler that featured Harry’s interview was the best way to ensure
everyone would read it? The same thing
applies here. The more you try to drive
Emma away, the more you are convincing her that she needs to stick around. (You would think the fact that Emma went
after Regina’s apple tree with a chainsaw would have tipped her off. I know that scene made me think ‘Wow! Remind me never to get on your bad side!’ But nope, I guess it didn’t.) And the fact that you intentionally dragged Henry into your
schemes only further cemented Emma into staying. You’ve just proven to Emma that you might
just be a threat to the kid she’s starting to care about. Seriously woman, Sheriff Graham even told you
that it might be a good idea to ease up and change tactics. Try listening to the advice of the people
around you for a change. Ever think you
might be happier in the long run if you did?

Also in this
episode, we see two things happening that were only briefly touched upon in the pilot
episode. The first of these two things
is the growing bond between Emma and Mary Margret, the latter of which has yet
to remember their true connection. In
spite of that, Mary Margret is still able to sense that she can trust
Emma and helps bail her out of jail after being set up. The second is the subtle way Mr.
Gold, Rumpelstiltskin’s Storybrooke identity, shows himself as the cunning
serpent he is. Yeah, Gold, don’t even try to act like you don’t know exactly what’s
going on here. We all saw your
reaction to hearing Emma’s name in the last episode. We know you’ve maintained your memories from
the Enchanted Forest. Don’t pee on my
foot and tell me it’s raining.

This episode
is particularly noteworthy for introducing Emma’s fondness for cinnamon in her hot chocolate,
something we quickly find out is a trait she shares with Henry and Mary
Margret. So, was that just something
they put into the show to further illustrate the family connection between these three
characters, or is that something that’s going to come into play in a much later
episode. Like, is cinnamon going to end
up being the key ingredient in a life-saving potion or something? After all, the brief research I did on the
spice does suggest it has medicinal properties.
Then again, maybe I’m just reading too much into it, and the whole love
of cinnamon is just an ongoing joke, like the Pineapples in the USA show, Psych and the whole ‘it’s bigger on the inside’ thing from Doctor Who.

Snow Falls-

Oh, this episode! I think this
is the one that really got me into the show.
This is the episode that shows us how Snow White and Prince Charming
first met, and it’s a WAY better first meeting story than having the pair
instantly falling in love by just hearing each other sing by the wishing well. (The fact that the animated version of Snow
White’s singing voice is capable of making ones ears start bleeding is beside
the point.) By the time the Enchanted
Forest plotline for this episode ended, I was sorely disappointed that they
stopped there; I wanted to see the story of Snow White and Prince Charming
continuing on for much longer. What made
the episode even more enjoyable was seeing the parallel story occurring in
Storybrooke, which perfectly complemented the Enchanted Forest plotline. Mary Margret is seeking companionship from
the opposite sex, but isn’t having much luck, as shown by her horrible date
with the guy we’ll eventually know as Dr. Whale. (Ugh. It’s such a dirtbag move to leer at
someone else while you’re on a date. I
don’t care if the girl you’re looking at is wearing an outfit as revealing as
Ruby/Red Riding Hood. I get that jerks
like that exist, but why even bother agreeing to go on a date with someone if
that’s all you what you want to do?) However,
the day after the bad date, Henry, while visiting the hospital as part of the
Storybrooke’s school program of visiting hospital patients, comes across a
comatose patient and surmises, based on the man’s chin scar, that this is
Prince Charming’s Storybrooke counterpart.
I admit I was grinning like a loon seeing Mary Margret ‘connecting’ with
her soulmate when she didn’t remember who he was, and how, even when
unconscious, Charming still can sense his true love’s presence. He even slept walked to the location of the T(r)oll
Bridge, where they first began to form a solid connection. That is just indescribably awesome. These two people were so in love, even when
their memories of each other are locked away because of the curse, their
subconscious minds still recognize each other.
It’s no wonder these two are considered the very essence of True Love. And let’s not forget how, when Charming/David
was reunited with his ‘wife’ Kathryn (Princess Abigail’s Storybrooke
counterpart, whom Charming was originally going to join in an arranged marriage
with prior to meeting Snow White), he still maintained eye contact with Mary
Margret/Snow. Oh, the parallels! I can’t even begin! As for Regina, while I did like seeing her
back off a bit from her tirade against Emma, which was prominent in the last
two episodes, this episode began my season-long habit of yelling ‘GO AWAY!’ at
the screen every time she appeared.
Believe me, I get how she can’t stand the thought of Snow being happy
and all, but come on lady! Still, it is
a bit chilling to see how she’s got the whole town in her back pocket, and how
everyone reports to her immediately after anything happens. Last episode, it was Archie calling Regina
after he gave Emma Henry’s files. This
time, Dr. Whale calls her up when a change in Charming/David’s brain activity
is detected. Henry wasn’t kidding around
when he said the whole town’s afraid of her.

One
question. So, the bridge Snow and
Charming fought the trolls at was transferred into Storybrooke’s town
lines. But we clearly saw trolls living
there. And we did see a dragon flying by in the pilot episode, when Regina's curse was rolling in, as well as Maleficent's pet unicorn that we saw last episode. Which means there were other mythical creatures living in the Enchanted Forest, right? What happened to these mythical creatures when Regina’s curse
hit and created Storybrooke? Were they spared from the curse, or
did they all become inanimate objects, like Regina’s gnome garden ornament? If anyone has any thoughts on this topic, I'd be glad to hear them.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Yes, that's right. I'm still alive. I deeply apologize for the long inactivity. (Thank you, work and social life.)

I've decided to try something a bit new for a while. I've recently became a fan of the ABC show, Once Upon a Time.

If you haven't given it a chance, I highly recommend you do so. At the moment, the show is in the middle of the hiatus between seasons 4 and 5. To pass the time before the season 5 premiere, I'm going to go through each episode and give my personal opinion on them. That said, please keep in mind that these analyses are coming from someone who has seen the series in its entirety to date, so there might be some minor spoilers popping up here and there. I will try to keep these to a minimum, and even when they do pop up, I won't be giving away too much. In addition, I'd like to apologize in advance if I don't really go into thorough detail for some episodes in season 1. This will be because season 1, while entertaining, can hit moments where the storytelling drags somewhat, leaving you wishing they'd pick up the pace a bit. So, without further ado, here is my analysis of Once Upon a Time's pilot episode.

This episode
is pretty much what you’d expect from a show’s pilot episode, from setting up
the premise and introducing us to our cast of characters. We learn of how Snow White’s stepmother, Evil Queen Regina, placed a curse over everyone in the Enchanted Forest that sent them all
into the modern world, more specifically the town of Stroybrooke, Maine, with
everyone losing their memories in the process. However, on the day the curse is
cast, Snow White and Prince Charming send their newborn baby girl, Emma,
through a magical wardrobe that sends her to a location outside the curse’s
reach, in the hopes that she will return one day and save everyone. Flash-forward 28 years later, where Emma, now
fully grown, is sought out by her long-lost son, Henry, whom she put up for
adoption ten years prior. Henry, who had
since been adopted by Regina (oh, the irony), has figured out the truth about
Storybrooke, and convinces the skeptical Emma to journey to Storybrooke herself
so she can break Regina’s curse. This
show really doesn’t mess around, as we’re immediately shown what we’re in for
from the start. Pretty much every
character we’ve known from our childhood bedtime stories just comes to life in
this show. We’ve got Snow White and
Prince Charming, of course, but we’ve also got Geppetto and Jiminy Cricket,
with cameos of Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy. Even
Rumpelstiltskin makes a brief appearance, and all it takes is one episode to
let us know that this show is really going to build on and flesh out the fairy
tale characters nearly every child in the world has grown up reading
about. And it’s really neat to see how
everyone, even though they’ve forgotten who they are, still retains a semblance
of their true selves. For example, we
have Geppetto’s Storybrooke counterpart, Marco, commenting about how he and his
wife never managed to have children of their own, which was the main reason why
Geppetto made Pinocchio in the original story.
Even Snow White, now Mary Margret, has managed to keep her tendency to
spout speeches about the importance of hope.
Not to mention her affinity to birds.
Although, I do have one slight nitpick.
In one scene, Snow White comments how Regina gave her the Poisoned Apple
just because Snow was prettier. But, as
anyone who has seen future episodes could tell you, the reason for the Poisoned
Apple was a bit more complicated than a vanity issue. But I get it.
The show writers don’t want to give away too much at once. I can respect that. Besides, it’s the pilot episode. Pilot episodes are designed to gain
endorsement from the television networks that will run the show. They’re typically used as a test to gain a
feel for what works and what doesn’t.
It’s not unusual for some minor elements to change after the pilot
episode. In fact, there are a good
number of shows that never make it past the pilot episode.

I also REALLY
love how they chose to introduce Emma in this episode, showing us how she busts
that guy, Ryan the Embezzler. Great job
show, for immediately letting us know this is a woman you do not want to mess
with. I nearly broke out laughing when
we see she’d put the boot on Ryan’s car prior to entering the restaurant. Yeah, she already KNEW this guy was most
likely going to do a runner when she confronted him, and decided to nip that in
the bud, just in case. You’re good,
girl. Props to you. And that whole scene with her and Henry when
the two are talking about their family situations? That was a very well-acted scene. I always
admire actors who can cry on cue, and it
gives us our first real glimpse of how deep Emmma’s scars run when she tells
Henry the story about how her first foster family returned her when they had a
kid of their own. Which begs the question
of how such a thing is even allowed to begin with. Granted I know very little about the whole
foster system, but we’re talking about living children with feelings here. They’re not coffee tables. Seriously, how is returning a kid like a dress
that didn’t fit even legal?

I do have a
question after re-watching this episode.
So, time in Storybrooke is frozen.
Does that mean that everyone in Stroybrooke is literally frozen in
time? If that’s the case (and the
second episode claims it is), I really can’t blame Henry for figuring out
what’s really going on. Later episodes also
seem to hint at the fact that there haven’t been any children being born in
Storybrooke, and the children that do
exist in the town are stuck at certain ages.
In other words, I’m gathering Henry is the one person in town who is
actually physically aging? While I
imagine the curse is keeping everyone else from noticing that fact, with the
exception of the two people who were actually involved in the actual spell-casting
(Regina and Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin), Henry was born outside of Stroybrooke,
and therefore isn’t affected by the curse’s memory-altering side-effects. The
kid’s clearly not stupid, so he’s bound to notice that and get suspicious.

Bit of
advice to Regina. If you really wanted
Emma to leave Storybrooke, which I get that you did, given how you clearly felt
threatened by her presence, it probably wasn’t the best move to spout out that
whole ‘stay away from Henry’ rant. Even
if I hadn’t already seen the proof that Henry was right with all his fairy tale
talk, thanks to all the flashbacks? You
coming out of nowhere with that little hissy fit; I still would have seen that
as the big robot saying ‘Danger, Will Robinson!’ Seriously, where did that come from, lady? Emma wasn’t really giving any indication that
she wanted to take over as Henry’s mother at this point. All she did was comment on how she’d made a
wish that she didn’t have to be alone on her birthday, and that Henry had shown
up on her doorstop immediately afterward.
In fact, I sorta think she would have left Storybrooke on her own if you
had just thanked her for returning Henry and left it at that. I hate to tell you this, Regina, but you
really did kinda dig your own grave there.

One interesting
little touch I really enjoyed about this episode was the door to Emma’s
apartment in Boston. If you pause the
DVD to read the words on the door right before she opens it and meets Henry for
the first time, you’ll see phrases like ‘cast a spell’ written on it.

You gotta wonder if Emma unknowingly chose
this apartment specifically for that reason.
Almost as if the knowledge of her true identity was buried away in her
subconscious mind all along. Rather like
with Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled
remembering the sun insignia that was essentially her parents’ royal crest, or
Moses from Dreamworks’ Prince of Egypt
remembering his mother’s final lullaby. And
while you really can’t see it very well in this episode, screencaps and
promotional photos from other episodes also show that Emma has a tattoo of a
flower on the inside of her wrist. A
flower that is practically identical to the flowers that appear on the Charming
royal crest. There’s one more clue that
Emma’s memories of her birthplace was buried away in the farthest corner of her
mind all along. Also, when Emma and
Henry first arrive in Storybrooke, when Emma slams the door of her car in
frustration, one of the electrical wires above her head suddenly sparks. A little subtle foreshadowing to her currently
dormant magical abilities, maybe? That’s
certainly going to be my head-cannon from here on in.

Of course,
there was one thing in this episode that still kinda bugs me. So, Snow White’s stepmother places a curse
over all of the Enchanted Forest fairy tale land, and everyone in it winds up
in our modern world with absolutely no memory of who they really are or where
they came from. All right, I’ll buy
that. Besides, it’s not too dissimilar to the plot of the Disney
movie, Enchanted, and that was a pretty
good movie. You wanna know what I don’t
buy? Henry, a little ten-year-old boy,
is wandering around a big city by himself.
At night. And he’s carrying
around a credit card. And the taxi
driver who gives him a ride to Emma’s apartment doesn’t question this? Okay, where do I even begin? First off all, what ten-year-old carries
around a credit card? There’s your first
red flag there, and I do award the show points for acknowledging that later on. But there’s also the fact that he’s alone,
with no parent or babysitter in sight.
That sort of thing might not be as big a deal in a small town like
Storybrooke, but this is happening in Boston.
That’s a pretty big city. Maybe
not as big as New York or Los Angeles, mind you, but it’s still in the top
30. It’s even more of an issue that this
is happening at night. I’m considerably
older than ten, and even I’m hesitant about traveling the city streets at night
without utilizing the buddy system.
You’re seriously telling me this cab driver didn’t see this situation
for what it was and take that kid to the nearest police station? I’m calling horse-feathers here. However, I’m probably being overly-critical
because, that grievance aside, this first episode did its job and got me
interested enough to keep watching, just to see what happened next.

About Me

My dream is to move to England one day and write books for children and young adults. I am quite passionate about the environment and will get irritated when I see people throw plastic bottles and soda cans into the trash. I hold a strong love for animals and am greatly upset when I see people killing spiders or buying spring-loaded mousetraps. I am also a Christian woman, but please don't automatically label me as an overly-conservative Bible thumper.
Finally, I am offended by excessive swearing, particularly the F-bomb, which is why you won't see me using any of it in my blog.